Dr. Simone Pratelli is a Scientific Assistant at the Research Center for Aramean Studies at the Department of History at the Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, with his main research project being “A Critical Edition of the Syriac Universal Chronicle by Bar ‘Ebroyo with Its Continuations”.
About Mor Gregorios Bar Ebroyo
Bar สฟEbroyo, Grigorios Grigorios (Abลซ al-Faraj, Barhebraeus) (1225/6โ1286) was Maphryono since 1264 of the Syriac Orthodox Church and a philosopher, poet, grammarian, physician, biblical commentator, historian, and theologian. He was the foremost representative of the Syriac Renaissance of the 12thโ13th cent. After periods of study in Antioch, Tripoli and Damascus, Bar สฟEbroyo was made bishop in 1246 of Gubos and a little later of Laqabin (both sees in the vicinity of Melitene) by Patriarch Ignatius III Dawid. In the schism that followed the death of Ignatius III, Bar สฟEbroyo was appointed in AD 1253 to the see of Aleppo, where he was to witness the fall of the city to the Mongols in 1260. The synod held in Cilicia following the death of Patriarch Yuแธฅanon bar Maสฟdani in 1264 saw the double election of Ignatius IV Yeshuสฟ (Patriarch, 1264โ82) to the patriarchate and of Bar สฟEbroyo to the maphrianate.
Bar สฟEbroyoโs normal place of residence as maph. was Mosul and the nearby Dayro d-Mor Matay, but a significant part of his maphrianate was spent in Maragha and Tabriz, the new centers of power and learning under the Mongol ฤชl-Khฤns, where Bar สฟEbroyo befriended the leading Muslim scholars of the day. During his maphrianate, Bar สฟEbroyo ordained a total of twelve bishops, including his biographer Diosqoros of Gozarto, and saw his erstwhile disciple Philoxenos Nemrod ( patr. 1283โ92) elected to the patriarchate in 1283. He also entertained a friendly relationship with his Church of the East counterparts Denแธฅa I and Yahbalaha III. Bar สฟEbroyo died in Maragha on 29/30 July 1286. His remains were later transferred to Dayro d-Mor Matay, where they rest to this day together with those of his younger brother and successor in the maphrianate, Grigorios Barแนฃawmo แนขafฤซ.
Bar สฟEbroyo composed over forty works covering a wide range of subjects, mostly in Syriac, but occasionally also in Arabic. Taken as a whole, Bar สฟEbroyoโs literary output may be seen as an attempt at a revival of learning in Syriac through the use of the latest scholarly literature which was available in his day mostly in Arabic. Bar สฟEbroyo frequently modelled his works on works of Arabic and Persian authors (e.g., Ibn Sฤซnฤ, Ghazฤlฤซ, Naแนฃฤซr al-Dฤซn al-แนฌลซsฤซ) and incorporated into the framework provided by these models materials taken from both Arabo-Persian and Syriac sources, thus making a new synthesis out of the older Syriac and more recent Arabo-Persian literature.
Bar สฟEbroyo has often been characterised as a skillful but unoriginal compiler of earlier works. This is a characterization that overlooks the originality to be found in his choice of sources and in his openness to the knowledge found in the works of Islamic scholars and those of other Christian denominations. His works were to remain for a long time the standard texts in many fields not only among the Christians of the West Syriac tradition but also among those of the East Syriac and Maronite traditions.
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Urho, The Way 